In U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,842 an improved means of separating each of the several components of an oil filter was disclosed, involving cutting the canister, lifting off the cut canister, removing the filter element for processing separate from the canister and the metal base. In this manner, the metal components are substantially free of oil and ready for recycling into new metal products, while the filter elements are free of metal shards and can be efficiently processed to extract their oil (including heavy metal) content for separate disposal and leave a burnable residue high in fuel value, and so free of contaminant that combustion or landfill disposal is feasible.